Nigel Farage’s Brexit party has described criticism by Jewish groups and MPs as “pathetic” after it emerged he repeatedly used themes associated with antisemitism to criticise the financier George Soros.
Following strong condemnation of Farage’s use of language, echoing other conspiracy theories popular with antisemites, during interviews with the far-right US website Infowars, a Guardian investigation has found he called Soros “the biggest danger to the entire western world”, among other comments.
The Community Security Trust, which monitors and counters antisemitic sentiment, said Soros was a favourite hate figure among far-right antisemites. “Instead of dismissing these concerns, Nigel Farage should ensure that his language does not help these ideas to spread in British politics,” the charity said.
Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs from the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism also expressed concern. Nicky Morgan, the Conservative former education secretary, said it was “lazy and deliberately divisive dog-whistle politics to attack someone, however subtly, because of their gender, race or religion”.
In response, a Brexit party spokesman said the criticism was “an exceptionally feeble attempt to portray Nigel Farage as an antisemite”, calling it “lamentable” and “pathetic”.
Farage’s claims include that Soros wants to fundamentally reshape Europe’s racial makeup and to end the continent’s Christian culture. He also praised Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for having the “courage to stand up against him”.
Soros, a Jewish-born Hungarian-American, is accused by Farage, Orbán and others of using his wealth to spread liberal doctrines through the work of his Open Society Foundations, to which he has transferred billions of pounds of his wealth.
However, Jewish groups say portrayals of Soros as a scheming puppet-master – as frequently used by Orbán – regularly spill over into antisemitic conspiracy theories of Jewish bankers controlling governments.
The Guardian has found that in an interview with the US network Fox News in June last year, Farage said Soros “in many ways is the biggest danger to the entire western world”.
Farage said Soros sought “to undermine democracy and to fundamentally change the makeup, demographically, of the whole European continent”. The latter claim directly echoes conspiracy theories against Soros made by far-right groups such as Generation Identity.
In other interviews and speeches in 2017 and 2018, Farage:
Said Soros “wants to break down the fundamental values of our society and, in the case of Europe, he doesn’t want Europe to be based on Christianity”.
Claimed the EU was funded and influenced “by the Goldman Sachs, the JP Morgans, and a particular Hungarian called Mr Soros”.
Alleged the work of Soros’s foundation could amount to “the biggest level of political collusion in history”.
Argued criticising Soros should not be seen as antisemitic since Soros was in fact an atheist.
Theresa Villiers, the Conservative MP who is a vice-chair of the parliamentary antisemitism group, said: “Anyone who holds elected office should take particular care with the language they use about minority groups.
“Antisemitic conspiracy theories have been causing harm for centuries. Those who speculate about conspiracy theories therefore run the risk of energising antisemitism, particularly if they combine that with reference to individuals from the Jewish community.”
Labour’s Wes Streeting, also a vice-chair, said: “Nigel Farage doesn’t want to answer questions about his smears against George Soros, because they play into some of the worst antisemitic tropes.
“He is in the gutter, capitalising on a rising tide of antisemitic conspiracy theories to peddle his political message. It is no more respectable than the racism he left behind in Ukip.”
The Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, also one of the group’s vice-chairs, said: “The suggestion that Nigel Farage can be judge and jury over what constitutes antisemitism is abhorrent, not least because of the very dubious comments he has made in the past. Despite his attempts to recast himself at these elections, the mask has already slipped.”
A Brexit party spokesman said: “There is absolutely nothing in any of these remarks to substantiate an allegation of antisemitism. It is an exceptionally feeble attempt to portray Nigel Farage as an antisemite. Anybody with an iota of intelligence or objectivity will see right through it.
“This long list of supposed ‘revelations’ amounts to nothing more than a reasonable and measured critique of the well-known political activities and ambitions of a high-profile billionaire. Even by the Guardian’s lamentable standards, this manufactured story is pathetic.”